


"I Like Your Nails!"

by ChaoticCliche23



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, Free Verse, Original Recipe, Poetry, Slam Poetry, poem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-09-23 18:03:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20344381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaoticCliche23/pseuds/ChaoticCliche23
Summary: A poem about being valued for only one thing





	"I Like Your Nails!"

If a tree falls in the forest  
and no one hears it  
it does exist  
but the tree itself starts to doubt  
What is existence without acknowledgment?  
Ask any small kid acting out in a Target store  
kicking and screaming with all eyes on them  
It is better to be hated than ignored  
What is life without acknowledgment?  
Is there life without acknowledgment?  
Work your ass off for ten years (and counting)  
Blood, sweat, tears, dreams, fears  
hate  
All of it  
wrapped up in the pages you believe in so much  
you can feel it sometimes  
vibrating in the salt of your skin  
It's claimed you  
it doesn't matter how long it takes  
so long ago, for some reason,  
it saw you,  
across the room,  
a child sitting alone at a table  
and smiled  
"that one. that one's mine."  
You still don't know why  
but it's the closest thing to what you think love is supposed to feel like  
So you do whatever it tells you  
Go wherever it tells you  
Sleep and eat whenever it tells you  
You will do anything for its voice  
to be heard  
To someday reach the moment when you can re-gift the life it gave you  
It's not even about you at this point  
You need this to work because the idea of failing anything that trusted you with something so precious  
that loved you,  
that saw you,  
that chose you, without hesitation, as their first choice--  
"You were the only choice"--  
Makes you so sick you can't stomach to look at yourself  
What are you gonna say?  
"I'm sorry, you were wrong.  
Pick someone else."  
You don't want it to pick someone else

All this dedication  
All this love  
It's real  
The realest thing you've ever known  
So try to imagine how it feels  
To show up, time after time,  
covered in the dirt and grime of passion  
And still, all you hear for it  
Is what a pretty girl you are 

Ask me about my nails  
Ask me about my hair  
Ask me to sing for you  
But dull your eyes and look away as soon as I talk about anything that makes me feel something  
If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, it does exist  
but the tree itself starts to doubt  
"Is this all I'll ever be good for?"

I look behind me,  
at the little girl still drawing red eyes in colored pencils  
When she shows up at my doorstep years down the road,  
First Comic Sans Mary Sue draft in her hands,  
and asks if they ever listened to her  
What am I supposed to say?  
"Sorry kiddo,  
No one wanted to see an open wound.  
They just came for the glitter."


End file.
